Mike Fine: In defense of NBC's Olympic coverage

Yes, the games got off to a grim beginning, and yes, NBC’s coverage cannot please all the people all the time, but the network is actually doing a good job in its coverage.

Mike Fine

When Georgian Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed on the opening day of the Vancouver Games, a dark cloud settled in over Western Canada.

Already, there was a serious problem with a track that some said was too fast and too long, resulting in the shortening of both the men’s and women’s course and the erection of walled protection in the area that Kumaritashvili crashed and slammed into a metal support post. A week later, bobsledders were complaining about their course, citing many of the same problems.

After the Kumaritashvili accident, a series of problems seemed to be arising, from the mundane to critical. Chief amongst them, of course, was the weather, which was unseasonably warm, causing delays in the skiing events and training runs. Athletes were forced to shed clothing, courses were unusually soft or even non-existent. Snow was trucked in or flown in via helicopters.

There were riots in the streets of Vancouver, staged by disgruntled residents who were following in the footsteps of unbelievably demanding rioters that have plagued games all over the earth, except in Beijing, of course.

The Vancouver Olympic committee came under fire for building an ugly chain-link fence around the giant cauldron that symbolized the games, keeping fans from enjoying the experience further. The flame was a source of irritation in the first place, given that it malfunctioned during the opening ceremonies, leaving Canadian speed skater Catriona Le May Doan standing with a lit torch that couldn’t do its job. She ad-libbed with grace, holding the useless torch high.

There was a security glitch in which a man who is now reportedly in a mental institution printed a pass on the Internet and got within several feet of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

The games went on, of course, but not for some ticket-holders to the moguls events. They were told that they couldn’t attend because the ground beneath what would have been their feet, which was being buoyed by hay bales, couldn’t hold their weight due to the warm conditions.

And then there was NBC. In America, we depend on NBC to convey the Olympics to us, but the network, predictably, came under all kinds of fire for its efforts. NBC was broadcasting over several on-air venues.

There was NBC itself, MSNBC, USA and Universal HD. It seemed like if we wanted to watch a hockey game, we certainly couldn’t find it on NBC. We had to look to one of the others, and who the heck knows where those are located on our cable systems?

Because of that, many of us probably missed out on one of the wonders of these Olympics, the curling events, which have been fascinatingly broadcast over CNBC. Seriously, if you haven’t caught it, you’re missing one hoot of an event.

Meanwhile, if you were hoping to watch the USA-Norway men’s hockey showdown, you weren’t going to find it on prime time on NBC. Nah, you had to check out one of the subsidiary stations. Turn back to NBC and you find yourself watching men’s figure skating champ Evan Lysacek spinning around the ice in his black see-through outfit.

The most aggravating aspect of the coverage might be tape delays. The downhill and Super G events, broadcast at night, were necessarily shown on delay. Half the audience probably never realized it. Most did.

But here’s the point to all of this: Yes, the games got off to a grim beginning, and yes, NBC’s coverage cannot please all the people all the time, but the network is actually doing a good job in its coverage.

It has kept its coverage moving nicely during the evening hours, touching all the bases, not lingering too long on any one event.

I’ll never forget the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, when ABC broadcast endless coverage of unfamiliar events like ski jumping from start to finish.

This year, NBC has been commendable in its human-interest stories, such as Hannah Teter’s ”Hannah’s Gold” charity that benefits kids in Kenya.

During these Olympics NBC has touched the major bases, giving us the drama of the medal quests of Lindsey Vonn, Apolo Ohno, Shani Davis, Julia Mancuso, as well as the snowboarders, mogulers, hockey players, etc.

The beauty of the Olympics is that while many of us, for instance those of us who ski, can actually imagine what it must like to be flying through (or crashing on) a Super G course, we can never understand what it’s like to be Johnny Spillane winning the Silver in the Nordic combined.

NBC has brought us into the curling arena, given us a taste for the wild snowboard cross, the halfpipe, the luge or a cross-country uphill sprint.

For four years we’re fans who are wrapped up in major league sports, and NBC and the Olympics draws us into a world we haven’t given a thought about since 2006. We’ve got the bad guys against the U.S., and we love to see our guys kicking butt.

Whatever it is, it’s compelling athletic drama, to the point of overcoming the early difficulties and rising above.

Lifestyle

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
The Helena-West Helena World - Helena, AR ~ 417 York, Helena, AR 72342 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service